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We have a few pet peeves about the modern day egg. As a matter of fact, we are so PEEVED that we are making this a series with a challenge at the end. (And there might even be a special giveaway drawing for those who do the challenge.) 
Benefits of Eating Good Pastured Eggs
If you have never sourced a good egg/chicken from your local farmer, you may not know that you are likely missing out on some great nourishment. A GREAT egg is satiating. There is NO comparison to a store-bought egg and a properly pastured chicken egg. Let me say it again -- THERE IS NO COMPARISON. I am satisfied for HOURS longer on a properly pastured egg than a store-bought egg. Now I can already hear some of you saying, "But pastured farm fresh eggs cost $5+ a dz!" Granted . . . but how much does that mid-morning snack cost you? Or how much more do you eat at lunch and dinner because your morning breakfast was less than filling? The Weston A Price Foundation website has an article on pastured egg nutrition here. Some additional nutritional benefits of PASTURED over conventional store-bought eggs: 1) 2/3 more Vitamin A 2) Up to 7 times more beta-carotene 3) 3 times the Vitamin E 4) Twice the Omega-3 Fatty Acids which is severely deficient in the modern American diet 5) 4-6 times more Vitamin D Just so you know, we don't advocate that more expensive is better! You have to do the research. I once paid $8 a dz for eggs that were supposedly pastured, but 
the yolks were anemic looking and pale. The farmer said all the 'right' things about what they did to make the eggs, but there was a clue that he was not being truthful -- the egg yolk. When I asked why they were so pale, she told me, "The longer an egg sets on the shelf the darker it gets, so fresh eggs will be paler." UM, that is CRAP! Just read this article again by the WAPF and it states that the opposite is true. Think about it. If that were true, then commercially produced store-bought eggs would be "fresher" than most farm eggs???? NO WAY! Don't believe it -- pastured eggs will be dark yellow or orange in color. In 2007, Mother Earth News asked several pastured farmers to submit eggs for testing and compared these against the conventional store-bought brands. Here are the startling results in favor of pastured eggs. Notice that Joel Salatin (we love him... you should too) is on this list and ranks as the highest in nutritional value in many areas.
Basics About Chickens and Eggs
The best eggs come from chickens on pasture. Period. Just because you buy a dozen organic eggs at the store does not make them PASTURED! Cage Free eggs are not PASTURED (as they only have to have access to the outside by one tiny little door). Now, what eggsactly does this mean? (We like dumb puns, too... sorry.) The best pastured chickens are ones in which the chickens are free to roam outside to their hearts' content. There are several ways that a farmer can do this. But one of the best ways to protect a flock from predators is to have a moving fenced area with a roosting coop on wheels. Farmers must have a place for the girls to lay their eggs otherwise he/she will not be able to find the eggs in the field. Hens like the privacy of a roosting house to lay their eggs So, a simple roosting house that moves is a great tool for the farmer when he/she moves the girls to another field for more grub. The reasons that pastured chickens, and thus the eggs, are better for you to eat is because:
- Chickens forage for their own food which is natural to their species (happy chickens).
- They are in the sunshine which allows the Vitamin D to concentrate in the eggs.
- The more grub they forage for the less 'feed' they need.
- Omega-3 is higher in concentration in pastured chickens
About Chicken Feed
I was told by a local farmer (who does it right and follows a Joel Salatin model of raising chickens) that unless chickens are foraging in a more forested area where bugs abound (most do not), then they need supplemental feed. This is a pretty standard practice for chicken farming and very unlike raising cows which are herbivores and can live on grasses and hay alone. So, what should be in the feed? A mixture of alfalfa/clover, grains, a protein, and maybe some grit (dirt, sand small gravel to imitate pasture dirt to help break down the feed and act as teeth). For the protein, MOST chicken farmers, including some of the best, use SOY. Because of my (Jen) soy intolerance I have searched high and low for the perfect soy free chickens and eggs. IT's.NOT.EASY! What are acceptable protein options other than "evil soy"? There are a few:
- Soak the grains in WHEY
- Milk mush or yogurt (real farm yogurt not store-bought crap)
- Flax seed (but I am wary of the phytoestrogen content in flax, so I am not easily swayed by farmers that promote this)
- Beans and legumes
- Fish meal (but there may be some sustainability issues here as the ocean is being over farmed and fish meal in not part of a chicken's natural traditional diet)
There may be others, but these are some of the ones that I have heard about. BTW - another pet peeve we have with chickens on the market today are ones that are proclaimed to have a VEGAN or VEGETARIAN diet. Even a 5 year old knows that chickens naturally eat things such as WORMS and GRUBS! To think that a farm is "ethical" because it feeds its chickens a VEGETARIAN or VEGAN diet is not ethical at all. And you can be certain that those farmers are either using this as a marketing ploy or these chickens cannot possibly be on pasture! Because if they were, the chickens would naturally be looking for protein in the form of bugs and meaty meals. (However, their feed SHOULD NOT contain chicken or beef by-products as that is NOT natural to the species diet!)
Happy Chickens Make the Best Tasting Chicken and Eggs
What does str
ess do to your body? It's not good, right? Well, it has the same effect on animals. Chickens need to be chickens. And pasturing is just one way to keep your chicks happy, and thus, your eggs tasting GREAT. But there are other things that you need to know about some standard farming practices. Chickens are territorial. And the older chicks tend to be more aggressive towards the more submissive chicks. Because of this MANY farmers (mostly commercial and even cage-free) will cut off the chickens' beaks to keep them from pecking each other to death. Pastured chickens can still be aggressive. But it happens less often because the submissive chicks are able to keep clear of the dominant aggressive chicks. Now think about this . . . how does a chicken with no beak forage for food on pasture? They don't! This is a very important question to ask your farmer! DO YOUR CHICKENS KEEP THEIR BEAKS?
How Do You Source Good Eggs (and Chickens)?
Good question! You have to learn the art of asking your farmer specific questions. In Part 2, we will list questions for you to ask you farmer. But, you have to be bold - not rude, but bold. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Food you buy at the farm is almost always more expensive than grocery store food. There are several reasons for this that we will address in another series. If you are paying good money for your food, you need to make sure it has what you need. Otherwise, find the best you can get but keep looking for other farmers. And don't get hung up about the COST of the eggs. I am convinced that a good egg is one of the BEST investments in my real food diet (the other would be pastured bones for bone broth!). If I have to cut corners on cost, I will go with a cheaper, leaner meat (as toxins store in the fat) before I will go cheap on the eggs. And we are convinced that if you try our challenge at the end of this series, you will understand WHY we say this. A good egg will save you money because you will eat less throughout the day. Pin It
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thank you for this post!!
Wow! Great post. Long story short, I had to buy ‘regular old eggs’ from the store a week weeks back. They were labeled as ‘large’ eggs and I was so freaking peeved when I opened them at home, took a few out, and some of the were decent sized, some were 1/2 the size of others! REALLY? Not to mention I think these types of eggs have a weird smell to them too. I can’t wait until we get chickens in the spring!
Honestly, that DOES surprise me Allison. The FRANKEN-EGGS as the store are usually scarily the same size and color. But certainly annoying to think you are getting large eggs and you get teeny ones. I would have taken them back. There is a reason that store eggs are graded . . . it may be the one thing that you should be able to count on!
Jealous that you are getting your own chickens — that is on my ‘someday’ list!
Oh yeah — I was just reading your blog post too about switching to whole foods. It’s a process . . .still learning here too.
I haven’t found a farmer with pastured eggs so I am buying at the grocery store. I pick the ones that say ‘Free Run’. The yolks are very dark. Do you think these are from pastured hens? My city won’t allow chickens.
If you don’t have good pastured eggs, then store eggs listed as organic would be next best. Obviously grocery eggs will have some benefit over NO EGGS at ALL — but it is at the bottom of the food chain for eggs. We wrote the article to tell people that if they have pastured options, then they really should research it. And I might suggest that if you can and they are quite pricey – don’t over look them because of the price. Make adjustments elsewhere because in the long run a good egg will save you money and your health (with all it’s benefits).
Later in the series we are going to have a challenge to encourage people to look for good pastured eggs in their area. I actually travel over an hour for my eggs. That may sound extreme, but I value them that much. I am a fan of local so this is not my first choice but if you really can not source a good pastured egg Tropical Traditions has eggs you can buy: http://tinyurl.com/87p4hf8 to be shipped to you. You can buy them in 4 or 8 dz packs. Again with shipping it is a lot more than you are paying for your current eggs. But the challenge is meant to be a trial. We want you to see just how much of a difference it makes and most people can usually make a one time purchase to test a theory.
I hope you will join us for pt2 and the challenge in pt 3!
Oh to answer your last question – yolk color is only one factor in a good egg and can be manipulated but feeding chickens things like marigolds to cover up a pale yolk. Stiff whites (you may not know what these look like if you’ve never seen them) and a hard shell are good signs too. I always get shell in my eggs when I crack them open because the shells are so sturdy and hard.
We keep our own chickens because the eggs and meat are more nutritious (and tasty) and we question the ethics of raising large number of hens together (even in “free range” paddocks) as they prefer smaller social groups. I ate organic shop eggs on holiday a few months ago and they taste and look totally wrong. Yuck! We are so lucky to be able to keep our own chickens, I appreciate it everyday when I collect their eggs.
Liz – I am so jealous. I would love to have my own hens. Maybe someday . . . But I do have an Amish farmer that has soy free chickens and eggs and they are the best I have tasted anywhere. Probably as close as I would get to having my own.
And you are right about the size of the flock. It needs to be small. I address that in pt2 briefly as well as the amount of space for chickens per acre (per Joel Salatin a popular farmer in the world of sustainability and humanly treating farm animals.) He mentions to do it properly is intensive manual labor therefore the eggs cost more to cover the cost for skilled labor. It’s more complicated than most people are aware, which is why we chose to do the post.
We used to have a flock of hens for eggs and for those with a flock, I’ll share what I used to give our chickens for extra protein. When my raw milk soured and the curd and whey separated, I was left with a semi-solid mass in the milk carton. I wasn’t sure about consuming it ourselves at the time (now I know that a lot of people do this and it’s great), so I gave it to the chickens. They went absolutely nuts over it! Talk about happy chickens! So they got not only an excellent source of wonderful protein, but also all the probiotics and enzymes present in raw, cultured dairy. We also had an alfalfa field next to us (alfalfa is relatively high in protein) and I often tossed armloads of alfalfa (as well as garden extras) into their pen (we would have let them run completely free, but our dog was a bit too obsessed with them!). They went crazy happy over that as well. Awesome, very dark yolks too!
You can tell how fresh an egg is by putting it in a glass of water. If it sinks it is very fresh; if it rises part way it is still ok, but not as fresh, and if it floats to the top it is old. The inside of an egg slowly loses moisture through the porous shell over time (which is why we find an “airspace” when we peel hard boiled eggs). Also, a just laid egg doesn’t need to be refrigerated. They have a shockingly long shelf life on the counter top. If it was just laid and you don’t have room in the fridge, you will surely consume your eggs weeks before they go bad. I first learned about the long shelf life from our county extension agent, and then read the same information in a chicken husbandry book.
Jill, this is good info. Thanks for sharing what you gave your hens. I also hadn’t heard about the freshness test with the glass of water. I will have to try that sometime if I am buying store eggs — just to see what happens. I don’t worry about freshness when I get them from my Amish farmer though.
I had heard about leaving farm fresh eggs on the counter too. I often buy 5 dz eggs at a time and once I have to buy 10dz and had no place to put them. Leslie (my blogging friend) mentioned that it was fine and I was so relieved. I guess when you think about it, they are not refrigerated when laid…
Great post. Glad I have been letting my girls out, after they lay. They almost ‘beg’ to be let out, when I go past their pen. No wonder I get compliments on my eggs. I had no idea I was doing anything special by letting them out. My eggs do have a dark orange color to the yolks. Can’t wait for your 2nd and 3rd posts. Thanks for sharing with us.
Thanks Jonni. Sounds like you are in tune with your chicks.
Bet your eggs are tasty.
A lot of small farmers I know post their offerings on craigslist. Also your local farmers market will more than likely have a few vendors selling pastured eggs (the Joel Salatin way).
That is a good place as any to start. I still encourage people to ask their farmers questions and even visit the farm. There are also a lot of hustlers on Craigslist as well as at the farmer’s markets.
Can I get an amen. We switched over this past year and what a difference.
I think I smile very time I see that bright yellow yolk sitting in my bowl.
I like the info on the hard shell. Maybe I will not get annoyed now when I see that piece of brown shell in the bowl.
Celeste, it happens every time I crack an egg now. every.time. And AMEN!
My hens are out on my hay pasture, they’re moved every few days to a new area for them to “use up”. They eat up all the alfalfa then start on the timothy. We supplement them with layer feed, but they eat very little. They’re yolks are dark orange, the whites are firm, and the yolk stands up in the pan.
The flavor of a pastured egg is like nothing you’ve had before, no after taste like store bought eggs either.The only complaint I have is that I can’t get them to stick around long enough for them to age, in order to hard boil them!!